Cyanobacterial dominance and succession: Factors, mechanisms, predictions, and managements

Eutrophication of natural water bodies worldwide has led to cyanobacteria becoming the dominant species in phytoplankton communities, causing serious harm environmentally and economically. Cyanobacterial succession makes effective treatment of cyanobacterial blooms a challenge. Although there are many studies about cyanobacterial dominance and succession, it is still lack of relevant review summarizing the advances on this topic. To control cyanobacterial blooms and manage water quality effectively, we conducted a critical review and drew the following conclusions: (1) cyanobacterial dominance and succession occur from spring to summer, with changes of multiple environmental factors dominated by temperature and nutrients conditions; (2) the cyanobacterial dominance and succession are inherently attributed to the distinctive traits of cyanobacteria including colony formation, gas vesicles, toxin release, and nitrogen fixation; (3) given the current meta-omics explorations on mechanisms of cyanobacterial succession, how to combine the extensive data to draw general conclusions is a challenge in the future; (4) the dominant niche of high temperature-adapted cyanobacteria genera will be further reinforced with global warming and elevated carbon dioxide in the future; (5) considering the causes and future developments of cyanobacterial blooms, the management strategies for controlling cyanobacterial blooms include reducing external nutrient input and removing internal nutrient in sediment, artificial mixing waters to decrease buoyancy of cyanobacteria, and biological control using allelopathy of aquatic plants and/or enhancing zooplankton feeding.